Paul Bond
Paul Bond (born 8th November 1966) is an English musician, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer based in Watford, Hertfordshire. As a guitarist, he is known predominantly for playing rock, prog and 'Americana'. As a producer, he has worked with a variety of artists and in the early 2000s made a name for himself by engineering and producing many top jazz acts including, The BBC Big Band, Matt Waites, Rufus Reid, Anthony Kerr, Madeline Bell and many others. Since 2016, Bond has worked extensively for Jeff Wayne (The War of The Worlds), working in the studio on The Audible Drama release of Jeff's classic album, moving on to the E.P. 'Pianos, Strings and Some Other Things'. The award-winning interactive show in London - 'Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience' and will be a part of the touring band for the Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds 2022 'Life Begins Again' Arena Tour playing guitars and keyboards.
Paul Bond | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Asti |
| Born | 8th November 1966 Derbyshire, England |
| Genres | Rock, Prog, Blues, Americana |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, Producer and Visiting Lecturer - University of Westminster |
| Instruments | Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Mandolin, Slide Guitar |
| Years active | 1986-Present |
| Associated acts | Lodestone Kick, Red Box, Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds |
| Website | https://www.paulbond.co |
Early Life
Paul Bond was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in the United Kingdom and at the age of 5, went to live with his grandparents after the divorce of his parents. His grandfather (William Bond) was the head-forester of Chatsworth House, the magnificent stately home near Bakewell.
A chaotic home-life saw Bond move with his family up and down the country, eventually settling in Euxton, Lancashire when he was 9
Bond was born into a musical family as his father was a multi-instrumentalist and played bass semi-professionally and his mother was a keen piano player.
Bond took up the guitar at the age of 10 and has suggested that his life changed when hearing the Black Sabbath song "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath". He got his first electric at the age of 11 and threw himself into practicing, playing along with Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin records.
Career
Bond joined a band called Freewill from Leyland, Lancashire who had received some attention from being runners up in the BBC program 'Rock School'[1]. The band were fronted by an exceptionally talented singer/keyboard player called James McCormack and they used to play to decent sized audiences for a band in their teens.
In 1985, Bond and McCormack moved down to London to see if they could 'make it'. Bond worked for a musical instrument distributor called 'Barnes and Mullins' and soon found himself being the UK demonstrator for the Shadow Guitar Synthesiser. This caught the attention of Greg Lake from Emerson Lake & Palmer who had just released an album and was about to go out on tour in the U.S.A. with Emerson, Lake and Powell (Cozy Powell on drums). After spending time showing Lake how to use the synthesiser, Bond was asked to go out on tour as Lake’s personal manager and assistant guitar technician. Whilst Bond was out in The States with ELP, he called up his friend James McCormack and was told that they had a record deal with Survival Records, a subsidiary of the giant EMI music group. Shortly after the tour, McCormack and Bond started working together under the name: The Catcher (after The Catcher in the Rye) and released a single produced by Pat Collier who had recently had a great deal of success producing Katrina and The Waves 'Walking on Sunshine'. It gained reasonable traction being played on BBC Radio 1 and was championed by DJ Peter Powell, but a lack of success resulted in the record company, McCormack and Bond pulling in different directions, so Bond left to pursue other goals.
Whilst involved with Survival Records, Bond cut his teeth as an audio engineer, helping to build and engineer the in-house studio.
In the early 90s, Bond started purchasing recording equipment and eventually opened up his first commercial studio with his friend Stuart Buckingham-Smart. They ended up using the Barn at Buckingham Smart’s home as a base and 'Old Barn Studios' were born. The studio was larger than the average 'demo' studio, so they found that the studio appealed to artists who could all record easily in the same room. The studio started to get a good name as being a great studio for jazz artists to record and eventually, this led to a long-term relationship with The BBC Big Band.
Around the same time, Bond formed the band 'Lodestone Kick' along with Patrick Sturrock, Clyde Dempsey and Wayne Allen and in 1995, they released the album 'Adrenochrome'[2] on the German Musik Kombinat label.
Interspersed with recording, Bond also continued to go out as a Guitar Tech and toured with many acts such as: Iced Earth, Nevermore, Moonspell[3], Dark Tranquility, Children of Bodom, Tiamat, Therion[4], Trivium, Strapping Young Lad and Cradle of Filth[5] who he worked with for 13 years.
In the 2000s Bond joined the band Red Box and in 2010, they released the critically acclaimed album 'Plenty'. The album became very popular in Poland and the band spent a lot of time performing over there over the next two years.
In 2015, Bond left the band to start recording his own material.
2016 saw him start working with Jeff Wayne on the best selling Audiobook: Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Musical Drama as well as The Immersive Experience which opened at the old Metal Exchange in London and is still active.
2022 sees Bond about to go out on tour with The War of The Worlds Arena Tour which was re-scheduled due to the Covid pandemic in 2021.
Equipment
Electric: Gibson Les Pauls, Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecasters, Fender Acoustasonics, Musicman
Acoustic: Martin, Santa Cruz
Amps: Marshall (small box 50 watt), Fender Prosonic, Vox AC50, Kemper profiler[6]
Personal Life
Bond got married in 1999 to Hana Majerikova(CZ) and they have two boys, Joshua and Elliot.
In 2012, Joshua (then aged 4) contracted an extremely aggressive form of cancer called Burkitt's Lymphoma which saw him spend nine months at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Although he became gravely ill, he survived and remains healthy to this day. Bond became an ambassador for the hospital and climbed Kilimanjaro[7] to raise money, summiting a year to the day that Joshua entered the hospital.
As part of the fund-raising, he released a single called 'Blue' with contributions from Oliver Wakeman[8] on Keyboards and Nick Beggs on bass.
Aside from music, Bond is passionate about motorsport and has raced karts and later moved onto a small-sized NASCAR series called Baby Grand.
References
- ↑ "BBC Programme Index".
- ↑ "Lodestone Kick - Adrenochrome". Discogs.
- ↑ "Moonspell - 2econd Skin". Discogs.
- ↑ "Therion - Live in Midgård (Vol.2)". Discogs.
- ↑ "Paul Bond". IMDb.
- ↑ "What gear setup for bands and producers using the kemper profiling amp?".
- ↑ "'Josh had to conquer something that scared him, so I am going to do the same'". Borehamwood Times.
- ↑ "News '12 - '18".
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paul Bond. |
- The official Paul Bond website
- The official Paul Bond Facebook Page
- Paul Bond Official Soundcloud Page 
- The official Paul Bond YouTube Channel
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